A major part of self-care that’s often overlooked is consistency. If you want to make progress in life, you need to be consistent and on some kind of schedule or routine. You can’t get too far just doing things at your leisure, or without any kind of structure. The automatic and consistent activities in our life is what shapes our future state.
You should always have a guide to follow. Having a good routine for your self-care can show you results a lot faster than you would see them just by doing random self-care tips whenever you get the urge. Your self care strategy will require effort so that you do not give other things priority over self care. Many people wait until it’s too late to start prioritizing personal care. Do you think there is anything more important than understanding and supporting your personal needs? What if each person understood their personal needs and how to meet them? How would this affect our relations to others?
The first aspect of your life that you should get consistent with is your bedtime. A person that lives till 75 years, and gets an average of 8 hours of sleep, will have slept 25 years. That’s one-third of a life span. Quantity and quality of sleep influence just how healthy and productive you are daily. It might sound childish at first, but sleep is such a crucial part of living a healthy and productive life.
It’s not only about the amount of sleep you get, either, but also about when you’re going to bed. You should have a set time at which you get into bed, and a set time at which you go to sleep. A set time for sleep that matches your body’s rhythm and the rising and setting of the sun will give you the greatest quality of sleep.
A consistent bedtime ensures that you’re able to wake up at a good time with plenty of sleep every day, allowing you to get more done. After you wake up, you should start the day off right with some proper nutrition.
Getting on a consistent diet can help you lose weight, have clearer skin, and keep you more focused and energized throughout the day. You can meal prep in advance if you’d prefer not to have to make breakfast every morning, but either way your meal should be consistent and fairly healthy.
This will give you the energy boost you need to continue on throughout the day. While this doesn’t have to be a daily occurrence, you should be working out at least a few days of the week.
This can be anything from cardio to weight lifting, or a combination of both – but as long as you’re keeping your body active on a regular basis, you’ll be doing well. Low to Medium intensity activity can be worked in daily without over stress to your central nervous system. High intensity activity that increases your heart rate to max 2-3 times per week is a good goal. Keeping your body moving helps maintain parts of your body like joints, so that they’re not feeling sore when you try to do little things, and so that they’re not hurting you when you’re older.
If you want to add in more mental health themed parts of your day, have a certain time slot dedicated to things like meditation or relaxation. The way you make your schedule is entirely up to you, but what’s important is that it’s a consistent schedule and you’re able to actually stick by it.
